Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life

Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life

Do we need another biography of Marx to go alongside the many we
already have? The justification given by Jonathan Sperber is
compelling. Previous accounts of Marx’s life have gone one of two
ways. Either he is seen as a prophet of modern times, a seer whose
theories help us understand the predicament we are in, especially in
times of economic crisis, an inspiration to everyone who wishes to see
state and society emancipated and transformed. Or, alternatively, he
was a misguided and misguiding ideologue whose theories have been
responsible for some of the worst crimes of the 20th century. This
book aims to scrape away the patina of retrospective polemic to reveal
Marx in the context of his own times. Sperber’s career as a social and
political historian has centred on the Rhineland in the mid-19th
century, but he has also produced wide-ranging and authoritative
surveys of modern European history, including a comprehensive study of
the 1848 Revolutions. It quickly becomes clear that he is ideally
qualified to carry out the task he has set himself.